Model: Sony DRX-S77U 8x USB 2.0 DVD±RW/RAM
Manufacturer: Sony Electronics
Provided By: Sony Optiarc America

When it comes to consumer electronics, there are few names as well known as Sony. For more than 50 years, this Japanese company has lead the way, producing innovative products for the audio, video and computer markets. Sony is no stranger to the optical storage industry either. From the development of the first compact disc standards to the introduction of the first dual format DVD writer, Sony has played a major role in much of the technology used today.

While one of the driving forces behind the Blu-ray Disc format, Sony hasn't abandoned the DVD quite yet. The company's subsidiary, Sony Optiarc, has continued to develop DVD writers for the portable and desktop markets. This spring, Sony unveiled its new slim external DVD writer, the DRX-S77U. This stylish and compact drive is capable of 8x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 6x DVD±R DL and 5x DVD-RAM writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 8x. The DRX-S77U also offers features like 24x CD reading and writing speeds, support for buffer underrun protection and a USB 2.0 interface. To top it all off, Sony has included the Nero 9 Essentials software suite.

Needless to say, this is only a taste of what the DRX-S77U has to offer. To give you an idea of what to expect from Sony's external slim DVD writer, we'll take a look at some of  the drive's features and then put it through its paces to see how it performs. Is the DRX-S77U the best choice for the person on the go? Read on as we find out.




What's in the box?:

  • Sony DRX-S77U 8x USB 2.0 DVD±RW/RAM Drive
  • Quick Installation Guide
  • Product Information Guide
  • Sony Software Disc v9.00W
  • AC Power Adapter
  • USB Cable
  • Warranty Information

Physical Features:

The drive Sony sent us for this review was manufactured in March of 2010 and had firmware 1.D5. This is the newest firmware currently available for the DRX-S77U.

The DRX-S77U is Sony's smallest DVD writer to date. Measuring 136.5 x 19 x 146.5 mm, it's not much larger than a couple of jewel cases stacked on top of one another. The DRX-S77U is also constructed of a lightweight, black plastic. It's hard to tell by looking at the pictures below, but there are some sparkly bits in the plastic that help hide the finger prints and smudges that glossy plastic tends to attract.

On the top of the DRX-S77U you can see a large "Sony" logo as well as a few showing support for Ultra Speed CD-RW media and the DVD+ReWritable and DVD Multi specifications. There's also a long, rectangular LED that lights up green whenever the drive is powered on.

On the bottom, the DRX-S77U has four small rubber feet to keep it from sliding around when placed on a flat surface. The plastic also has a matte finish which makes it a little easier to hang onto the drive.

The eject button is located along the front of the DRX-S77U. The drive also has a second LED that lights up orange when both reading and writing. 

Along the rear, you can see the DRX-S77U's USB 2.0 interface and power connector. Unlike most portable DVD writers, Sony's new drive cannot be powered off of a computer's USB bus. Instead it uses the included AC adapter as a stable power source.

Technical Specs:

Most of the specs below have been taken from Sony's website and the manual that came with the drive.

Sony DRX-S77U 8x USB 2.0 DVD±RW/RAM
DVD+R Write Speeds 8x, 6x, 4x (Z-CLV)
2.4x (CLV)
DVD+RW Write Speeds 8x, 6x (Z-CLV)
4x, 3.3x (CLV)
DVD-R Write Speeds 8x, 6x, 4x (Z-CLV)
2x (CLV)
DVD-RW Write Speeds 6x, 4x (Z-CLV)
2x (CLV)
DVD+R DL Write Speeds 6x, 4x (Z-CLV)
2.4x (CLV)
DVD-R DL Write Speeds 6x, 4x (Z-CLV)
2x (CLV)
DVD-RAM Write Speeds 5x (Z-CLV)
3x, 2x (CLV)
CD Write Speeds 24x (CAV)
16x (P-CAV)
8x (CLV)
CD Rewrite Speeds 24x, 20x, 16x (Z-CLV)
8x, 4x (CLV)
DVD Read Speeds 8x Max (DVD-ROM)
8x Max (DVD±R)
8x Max (DVD±RW)
8x Max (DVD±R DL)
5x Max (DVD-RAM)
4x (DVD-Vid)
CD Read Speed 24x Max
DAE Speed 24x Max
Buffer Size 2MB
Access Times
180 ms (DVD)
150 ms (CD)
CD Formats CD-DA
CD-ROM
CD-ROM XA
CD-I Ready
CD-Bridge
CD-Extra
Video CD
Photo CD
CD Text
CD-R
CD-RW
DVD Formats DVD-ROM
DVD-R/RW
DVD+R/RW
DVD+R DL
DVD-R DL
DVD-RAM
Writing Methods Disc At Once
Session At Once
Track At Once with Zero Gap
Variable of Fixed Packet Writing
Multisession

More Features:

By looking at the picture below, you can see that Sony's new DVD writer is identified as an "Optiarc DVD RW AD-7700S."

Nero also shows that the DRX-S77U has a maximum CD writing speed of 24x and a 2048KB buffer. This buffer is backed up by Super-Link buffer underrun protection as well. According to Nero, the DRX-S77U can also write CD-Text and overburn. When testing the drive's capacity I found that the drive was able to overburn up to 92:57 with CompUSA's 99 minute CD-R media. 

Using Alex Noe's Weak Sector Utility we were able to determine that the DRX-S77U is a "two sheep" burner and is capable of backing titles protected by SafeDisc 2.90. Like most drives, it did not pass the "three sheep" test.

Here is a screen shot from Erik Deppe's Opti Drive Control. Among other things, this program queries the drive to see what its reading and writing capabilities are. Opti Drive Control had no problems detecting the DRX-S77U's reading and writing speeds and supported disc types.

Opti Drive Control also shows that the DRX-S77U is an RPC-2 DVD drive. This means that the drive's region is stored in the firmware. The region can be changed five times and after that it cannot be changed anymore. Unfortunately, a patched RPC-1 firmware is not yet available for this drive.

While Opti Drive Control gives us a quick glance at the DRX-S77U's features, DVDINFOpro provides a little more information on some of the drive's reading and writing capabilities.   By looking at the screenshot above you can see that while Sony's new drive can read and write to DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL and DVD-RAM media, it does not support technologies like LightScribe or Labelflash.

The DRX-S77U doesn't let you set the book type of single layer DVD+R or DVD+RW media. However, using software like Nero, you can set the book type for DVD+R DL discs to "DVD-ROM." This greatly reduces compatibility problems, especially with older DVD players.


For the DRX-S77U's software bundle, Sony has turned to Nero. The CD that comes with the drive contains a stripped down version of the Nero 9 Essentials suite which includes Nero Express, Nero Vision, and Nero ShowTime.

Nero Express - With Nero Express, Nero has taken the features and performance people have come to expect from Nero Burning Rom and combined them with a user friendly interface. Redesigned to maximize ease-of-use, Nero Express gives users the ability to quickly and easily burn audio, data and video to CD or DVD.

The version of Nero Express that Sony included with their new DVD±RW drive is 9.4.27.1.  You can download the latest version of the software from Nero's website.

Nero Vision - Nero Vision is Nero's video authoring application. Thanks to a user friendly interface, Nero Vision makes it easy for users to capture, edit and then burn their favorite videos to VCD, SVCD or DVD or export it to Nero Digital format.

Nero Vision also lets users add things like transitions, custom backgrounds, animated menus and text effects. You can even use it to turn your photos into custom slide shows. 

Nero ShowTime - Nero ShowTime is Nero's software DVD player. Along with support for DVD's, ShowTime can be used to play back VCD's, SVCD's and miniDVD's as well as any MPEG, AVI or Nero Digital files you might have on your hard drive.

While small in size, Sony's new portable DVD writer isn't short on features. Along with a great looking design, the DRX-S77U offers some of the fastest reading and writing speeds available on a portable unit. The drive is capable of 8x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 6x DVD±R DL and 5x DVD-RAM writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 8x. The DRX-S77U also includes features like a 2MB buffer, support for some sort of buffer underrun protection and a great software bundled from Nero. Unfortunately, the drive lacks bitsetting support for single layer DVD+R and DVD+RW media and cannot be powered off a computer's USB bus. With this in mind, the Sony DRX-S77U scores a solid 7 out of 10 for its features.


Sony's new portable DVD writer was very easy to install. Thanks to its USB 2.0 interface, the entire installation process took only a matter of minutes. With no jumpers to worry about, it was as simple as connecting the USB and power cables. Once connected to our test computer, it took only a matter of seconds for plug and play to install the necessary drivers. After making sure that the drive was recognized correctly in the Device Manager, I was ready to start installing the software.

Software Installation:

As I mentioned earlier, the DRX-S77U comes with a CD full of software from Nero. If you have autorun enabled on your computer, the menu shown below will appear when you insert the disc. As you can see, the software and documentation is available in a number of different languages.  

After selecting your preferred language, you'll be given a short list of options. From here you can choose to install the bundled software, check out the manual or visit Sony's user support web page.

By default the setup program will install the entire Nero 9 Essentials suite onto your computer. If you don't want to install everything, select the custom installation. From here you can choose the components you want.

Documentation:

Instead of including one big manual, the DRX-S77U's documentation is spread out between a number of small, fold out "guides." To help people get their drive up and running as quickly as possible, Sony has included a "Quick Start Guide."  While this guide is a bit short on words, there are plenty of diagrams showing how to hook the drive up to your computer. The DRX-S77U also comes with a "Product Information" guide that contains information about the drive's package contents, features, system requirements and specifications. It also goes over the various buttons and connectors located on the front and back of the drive. Everything is labeled clearly and the functions of each are explained very well.

Like the other Sony drives we've reviewed, the DRX-S77U was very easy to install. I had no problems getting the drive or the software installed and working. If you need help for some reason, the documentation Sony has provided is more than sufficient. With this in mind, the DRX-S77U scores a solid 9 out of 10 for the installation portion of this review.


While CPU, memory, OS and other variables don't often make a huge difference, there are some nonetheless. We have a computer that is used only for testing hardware. We do this so all tests can be compared reliably.

Test System:

CPU:  AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ 2.4GHz 
Motherboard: ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe with BIOS 0304
Memory: Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400
Video Card: MSI NX7900GT-T2D256E - ForceWare v93.71
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATA 3.0Gb/s 320GB
Operating System: Windows XP SP3 - NVIDIA nForce v9.16

For DVD writers the performance tests are broken down into four sections: CD read, CD write, DVD read and DVD write tests. Each benchmark test has been run three times. The score given is an average of the three. DMA has been enabled in device manager for all IDE devices supporting it.

CD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the CD-ROM benchmarks, CD WinBench 99 and CD Speed are used to test transfer speeds, access times and CPU usage. For DAE testing, CD Speed is used to give an overall speed rating and is used in combination with CD DAE to see how well a drive reads scratched and dirty discs.

CD Write Tests: To test the write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 700MB to our test media. Times are recorded. To test rewrite scores, Nero is used again to time how long it takes to write 400MB of random files and directories. Then Roxio's Drag-to-Disc is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

DVD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the DVD benchmarks, CD Speed is used to test read speeds, access times, and CPU usage.

DVD Write Tests: To test the DVD write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write a 4.38GB image to our test media. Times are recorded. Then Roxio's Drag-to-Disc is used to test packet writing speeds. For this, 4GB of random files and directories are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

CD Winbench 99 Scores:

   Sony DRX-S77U
CD Winbench 99 1365 KB/sec
Transfer Rate: Inside 1640 KB/sec
Transfer Rate: Outside 3400 KB/sec
Random Access Time 133ms
CPU Utilization 12.6%

The CD Winbench test is as close as we can get to testing every day usage. It fires off eight different applications using scripts. This tries to mimic the activities of a person loading these programs onto their own computer.

Sony's new portable DVD writer performed fairly well in the CD Winbench portion of our tests. In the transfer speed tests, the drive started reading at about 10.9x on the inside of the CD and was able to reach 22.7x on the outside of the disc. As you can see, this resulted in a very good overall CD Winbench score.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - Pressed CD:

For this test I used a pressed CD containing one Mode 1 data track. The disc is 74:38 in size and is full of data and directories.


 

 

Transfer Speed Access Times CPU Usage
Average Start End Random 1/3 Full 1x 2x 4x 8x

Sony DRX-S77U

18.98x 10.93x 25.10x 139ms 159ms 254ms 1% 2% 3% 6%

The DRX-S77U performed a little better in our CD Speed tests. The drive started reading at 10.93x and quickly accelerated, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 25.10x. Unfortunately, its access times were a little higher than we'd like to see.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - CD-R Media:

For this test I made a copy of our pressed test CD. I used 12x rated Memorex Gold 74 minute media for the tests.


 

 

Transfer Speed Access Times CPU Usage
Average Start End Random 1/3 Full 1x 2x 4x 8x

Sony DRX-S77U

19.40x 11.07x 25.70x 145ms 169ms 268ms 1% 2% 3% 6%

The DRX-S77U was a little faster when reading CD-R media. Thanks to this speed boost, the drive was able to reach a maximum transfer speed of 25.70x.

Sony's portable DVD writer had no problems recognizing our 99 minute CompUSA media. The DRX-S77U read our test disc from start to finish, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 24.71x.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - CD-RW Media:

For this test I made a copy of a pressed test CD. I used some PNY 80 minute CD-RW media for the tests.


 

 

Transfer Speed Access Times CPU Usage
Average Start End Random 1/3 Full 1x 2x 4x 8x

Sony DRX-S77U

19.05x 11.04x 25.16x 144ms 156ms 259ms 1% 1% 3% 6%

The DRX-S77U also reads CD-RW media at 24x. As you can see, the drive came very close to reaching this speed in our tests.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 (DAE) - Pressed CD:

For this test I used Pure Funk. The CD is almost exactly 74 minutes. This helps to squeeze the maximum performance out of the CD.

Exact Audio Copy can tell us a lot about a drive's capabilities. You can see from the screen shot that while the Sony DRX-S77U supports accurate stream and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from the CD, it does not cache audio data.


 
CD Speed Average Start End Quality Accurate
Stream
Sony DRX-S77U 19.17x 11.07x 25.33x 10 Yes

For a portable drive, the DRX-S77U did very well in our DAE tests. The drive started out at 11.07x and reached a maximum speed of 25.33x.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 (DAE) - CD-R Media:

For this test I used a copy of the Pure Funk CD. It's burned onto the same Memorex Gold 74 minute media I used in the CD Speed tests.

CD Speed Average Start End Quality Accurate
Stream
Sony DRX-S77U 18.99x 11.07x 25.04x 10 Yes

The DRX-S77U was a little slower when extracting audio from CD-R media. This time around, it reached a maximum DAE speed of 25.04x. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

Sony's portable DVD writer completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 18.06x. While the drive was able to go through the tests without creating any errors, it was unable to pass all of the on the fly copying tests. If you look at the advanced features, you can see that the DRX-S77U was able to read the CD-Text and subchannel data but failed to read the lead in and lead out sections of the CD.

To see how well the DRX-S77U can read scratched and dirty discs, I used CD Speed's ScanDisc utility to see how many sectors were damaged or unreadable. This is a very rough, but good way to test the drive's error correcting abilities.


CD Speed - ScanDisc

The DRX-S77U handled scratched discs relatively well. By looking at the screenshot, you can see that the drive considered only 58% of the CD to be "damaged".  More importantly, none of the sectors on the disc were unreadable.

You can also get an idea of how well the drive can read scratched and dirty discs by using CD DAE. CD DAE will extract the audio tracks twice and then compare them. From this information we can see what the drive's average speed was and how many errors it generated.  

CD DAE Avg. Speed Errors % of Disc
Sony DRX-S77U 10.8x 2252490 0.29%

The DRX-S77U gave us some mixed results in this test. While the number of errors was very low, the scratches on the disc caused it to slow down considerably. 


CD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.11.10.0 and Drag-to-Disc 9.0:

For this test I randomly generated 700MB of files and directories to test the time it takes the drive to write and close a CD. All of the files are between 1MB and 25MB in size and no more than 10 directories deep. All of the times below include not only the actual writing time, but the lead in and out times too. This gives a more realistic idea of how long it takes to write a CD.

 

The DRX-S77U has a maximum CD writing speed of 24x. To reach this speed, it uses CAV, or Constant Angular Velocity. With Taiyo Yuden's 52x media, the drive started writing at about 11.41x and reached a maximum speed of 25.74x at the end of the session. This gave the DRX-S77U an average writing speed of about 19.20x.

To test the drive's writing times,  I wrote our test data to some Taiyo Yuden media rated at 52x. The results are below.

  Write Tests

701MB
79:44:21

Sony DRX-S77U

5:16

The DRX-S77U took a little more than six minutes to write an entire 701MB CD. While most of the internal writers we've looked at lately can do this in half the time, this is pretty good for a portable drive.

To test the drive's writing quality I used Lite-On IT's KProbe2. Written by Karr Wang, this utility can be used to test the number of C1 and C2 errors on a disc. For these tests I used a Lite-On LTR-52327S (firmware QS09) and read the discs at 32x. 


Moser Baer 52x


Taiyo Yuden 52x


Verbatim 52x

The DRX-S77U's writing quality was very good. By looking at the KProbe screenshots, you can see that the discs burned by the drive had a low number of C1 errors. More importantly, there were no C2 errors at all. 

For the rewriting tests I created 400MB of files on the hard drive and wrote them in DAO mode using Nero. To test the packet writing speeds I copied and pasted the same files off the hard drive onto a CD-RW disc using Drag-to-Disc from Roxio. Verbatim's 24x Ultra Speed CD-RW media was used for these tests.

While the DRX-S77U uses CAV when writing to CD-R discs, it uses Z-CLV, or Zone CLV, when rewriting at 24x. By looking at the screenshot above, you can see that the drive uses a total of five "zones." The DRX-S77U starts writing at 8x and quickly jumps to 12x at the 6 minute mark. When it reaches the 23 minute mark, the drive changes to 16x and then to 20x at the 46 minute mark. The DRX-S77U writes at this speed until about the 74 minute mark. When it reaches this point, its writing speed increases to 24x and stays there until the end of the session.

  Nero
400MB
D-to-D
Write
D-to-D
Read
Quick
Erase
Full
Erase
Sony DRX-S77U 4:29 4:21 3:08 0:28 6:12

Sony's portable DVD writer did fairly well in our rewriting tests. The drive took 4:29 to write 400MB with Nero and 4:21 to do the same with Drag-to-Disc. Erasing wasn't a problem for the DRX-S77U either. In our tests, it took 28 seconds to do a quick erase and 6:12 to fully erase the disc.


Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - DVD-ROM:

For this test I used a single layer, single sided data DVD-ROM disc that is 4.37GB in size.


 

 

Transfer Speed Access Times CPU Usage
Average Start End Random 1/3 Full 1x 2x 4x 8x

Sony DRX-S77U

6.04x 3.32x 8.08x 145ms 173ms 279ms 7% 26% 25% 53%

The DRX-S77U performed pretty well when reading single layer DVD-ROM's. In our tests it started reading at 3.32x and reached a maximum transfer speed of about 8.08x. Unfortunately, like in our CD read tests, the drive's access times were pretty high.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM:

First, we'll look at the drive's DVD-R and DVD-RW reading performance. For this I made copies of our DVD-ROM test disc using some general use 8x DVD-R and 6x DVD-RW media from Verbatim and then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. For the DVD-RAM tests, media from Maxell was used. The results are below.


Verbatim DVD-R
 

 

Transfer Speed Access Times CPU Usage
Average Start End Random 1/3 Full 1x 2x 4x 8x

Sony DRX-S77U

6.05x 3.33x 8.08x 150ms 189ms 298ms 10% 27% 27% 52%


Verbatim DVD-RW

 

Transfer Speed Access Times CPU Usage
Average Start End Random 1/3 Full 1x 2x 4x 8x

Sony DRX-S77U

6.06x 3.33x 8.10x 151ms 192ms 296ms 11% 27% 29% 50%

 


Verbatim DVD-R DL
 

 

Transfer Speed Access Times CPU Usage
Average Start End Random 1/3 Full 1x 2x 4x 8x

Sony DRX-S77U

6.07x 3.36x 8.09x 163ms 198ms 297ms 13% 80% n/a n/a

The DRX-S77U had no problems reading DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media. In all three cases, the drive reached a maximum transfer speed of about 8x.


Maxell 5x DVD-RAM
 

 

Transfer Speed Access Times CPU Usage
Average Start End Random 1/3 Full 1x 2x 4x 8x

Sony DRX-S77U

3.78x 1.67x 5.01x 201ms 372ms 459ms 8% 17% 28% n/a

Sony's new drive has a maximum transfer speed of 5x when reading DVD-RAM discs. By looking at the screenshot you can see that it starts reading at about 3x and then accelerates, reaching 5x at about the 1.9GB mark. 

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - DVD+R and DVD+RW:

Next we'll look at the drive's DVD+R and DVD+RW reading performance. For this I made a copy of our DVD-ROM test disc using some 8x DVD+R and 8x DVD+RW media from Verbatim. I then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. The results are below.


Verbatim DVD+R
 

 

Transfer Speed Access Times CPU Usage
Average Start End Random 1/3 Full 1x 2x 4x 8x

Sony DRX-S77U

6.05x 3.32x 8.08x 147ms 189ms 395ms 9% 28% 26% 50%


Verbatim DVD+RW

 

Transfer Speed Access Times CPU Usage
Average Start End Random 1/3 Full 1x 2x 4x 8x

Sony DRX-S77U

6.07x 3.34x 8.11x 149ms 189ms 371ms 11% 27% 26% 48%


Verbatim DVD+R DL
 

 

Transfer Speed Access Times CPU Usage
Average Start End Random 1/3 Full 1x 2x 4x 8x

Sony DRX-S77U

6.08x 3.36x 8.10x 150ms 187ms 293ms 9% 80% n/a n/a

The DRX-S77U's performance was very similar to what we saw with DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media. Once again, the drive reached a maximum transfer speed of about 8x.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - DVD-Video:

For these tests I am using the US version of Transformers: The Movie on DVD. The disc is over 4GB and single sided.


 

 

Transfer Speed Access Times CPU Usage
Average Start End Random 1/3 Full 1x 2x 4x 8x

Sony DRX-S77U

2.95x 1.62x 3.94x 174ms 223ms 319ms 7% 12% 84% n/a

The DRX-S77U wasn't nearly as fast when reading DVD videos. In our tests, it reached a maximum speed of only 4x when reading both single and dual layer discs.

To see how well the DRX-S77U worked as a DVD player, I watched a few scenes from Transformers: The Movie and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith using Nero Showtime. The drive had no problems playing back these movies and was fairly quiet.


DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.11.10.0 and Drag-to-Disc 9.0:

To test the DVD writing performance of Sony's new drive I used Verbatim 16x DVD+R, 16x DVD-R, 6x DVD-RW and 8x DVD+RW media. To get the writing times, a 4.38GB image was burned to our test discs using Nero.


Verbatim 16x DVD+R

 


Verbatim 16x DVD-R

When writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 8x, the DRX-S77U uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that Sony's new drive starts writing at about 3.38x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed at the end of the disc.


Verbatim 8x DVD+RW

 


Verbatim 6x DVD-RW

The DRX-S77U also features 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds. In both cases, the drive uses Z-CLV to reach its maximum writing speed.

  DVD+R DVD-R DVD+RW DVD-RW
Sony DRX-S77U 12:18 12::08 12:36 14:16

The DRX-S77U performed as expected in our DVD writing tests. While not as fast as some of the internal DVD writers we've looked at recently, it turned in some respectable times with DVD±R and DVD±RW media.

To check the media compatibility of the DRX-S77U, I ran a few tests using some of the media available in my area. The media types, along with the average time it took the drive to write our 4.38GB image, are listed below.

  Manufacturer ID Max
Write Speed
Average
Write Time
Memorex 16x DVD+R RICOHJPN R03 8x 12:18
TDK 16x DVD+R CMC MAG M01 8x 12:17
Taiyo Yuden 16x DVD+R YUDEN000T03 8x 12:16
Verbatim 16x DVD+R MCC-004 8x 12:18
Moser Baer 16x DVD-R MBI 01RG40 8x 12:02
Sony 16x DVD-R SONY16D1 8x 12:04
Taiyo Yuden 16x DVD-R TYG03 8x 12:06
Verbatim 16x DVD-R MCC 03RG20 8x 12:08

So what about writing quality? Thanks to KProbe, we can test a disc's PI (Parity Inner) and PIF (Parity Inner Fail) rates. For these tests I used a Lite-On SHM-165H6S (firmware HS0E) and read the discs at 4x with the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8 and 1 respectively. For comparison, I also tested the discs on a BenQ DW1640. When combined with Nero CD Speed, the DW1640 is able to report PI Errors, PI Failures, Parity Outer Failures and even jitter levels. For this test, the discs are read at 8x with both the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8.

So what are "good" results supposed to look like? With KProbe, the PI errors should not exceed 280 and the number of PIF errors should stay below 4. When testing with CD Speed, the number of PI errors should stay below 280 as well. However, because it scans with an ECC sum of 8, a higher number of PIF errors is acceptable, as long as they do not exceed 32. Since POF errors are uncorrectable, we really don't want to see any of them at all.

I also put these discs through a "stress test" by reading them back at 16x with the DW1640. By reading these discs back at this speed, we can see if there are any readability issues caused by the number of errors or high levels of jitter. 


Memorex 16x DVD+R @ 8x
(RICOHJPN R03
)

BenQ DW1640 - CD Speed
Transfer Rate


TDK 16x DVD+R @ 8x
(CMC MAG M01
)

BenQ DW1640 - CD Speed
Transfer Rate


Taiyo Yuden 16x DVD+R @ 8x
(
YUDEN000T02)

BenQ DW1640 - CD Speed
Transfer Rate


Verbatim 16x DVD+R @ 8x
(
MCC-004)

BenQ DW1640 - CD Speed
Transfer Rate

The DRX-S77U's writing quality was pretty good with most of the DVD+R media we tested. Aside from a few small spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits.


Moser Baer 16x DVD-R @ 8x
(
MBI 01RG40)

BenQ DW1640 - CD Speed
Transfer Rate


Sony 16x DVD-R @ 8x
(SONY
16D1)

BenQ DW1640 - CD Speed
Transfer Rate


Taiyo Yuden 16x DVD-R @ 8x
(TYG03)

BenQ DW1640 - CD Speed
Transfer Rate


Verbatim 16x DVD-R @ 8x
(
MCC 03RG20)

BenQ DW1640 - CD Speed
Transfer Rate

Lastly, here are some results from our DVD-R test media. While the writing quality varied from one manufacturer to another, the results were fairly good for the most part.

  DVD+RW
Quick
DVD+RW
Full
DVD-RW
Quick
DVD-RW
Full
Sony DRX-S77U 0:04 12:36 0:49 13:58

To test the DRX-S77U's packet writing performance I used Drag-to-Disc 9.0. Verbatim 6x DVD-RW, Verbatim 8x DVD+RW and Maxell 5x DVD-RAM media were used once again.

  DVD+RW
Write
DVD+RW
Read
DVD-RW
Write
DVD-RW
Read
DVD-RAM
Write
DVD-RAM
Read
Sony DRX-S77U 12:13 9:28 12:23 9:42 29:58 13:40

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.11.10.0:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the DRX-S77U, I used DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media from Verbatim and RiDATA. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

  DVD+R DL DVD-R DL
Sony DRX-S77U 27:53 29:13

The DRX-S77U performed relatively well when writing to DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media. Thanks to its 6x writing speed, the drive took 27:53 to write 8001MB of data to DVD+R DL media and 29:13 to do the same with DVD-R DL discs. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.


RiDATA 8x DVD+R DL @ 6x
(RITEK S04)

BenQ DW1640 - CD Speed
Transfer Rate


Verbatim 8x DVD+R DL @ 6x
(MKM 003)

BenQ DW1640 - CD Speed
Transfer Rate


Verbatim 8x DVD-R DL @ 6x
(
MKM 01RD30)

BenQ DW1640 - CD Speed
Transfer Rate

The writing quality was pretty good with Verbatim's 8x DVD-R DL media. Aside from a few isolated spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits. Unfortunately, the results weren't as good with the 8x DVD+R DL media from Verbatim and Memorex. While there weren't any readability issues, the error rates were a bit high throughout some sections of the discs.

Performance Revisited:

Sony's new portable DVD writer performed pretty well throughout most of our tests. When writing DVD's, the DRX-S77U turned in some relatively good times with DVD±R, DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media. The drive was also fairly quick when reading DVD's. In our tests, the DRX-S77U was able to read single layer DVD-ROM's and most recordable media at 8x but slowed to only 4x when reading DVD-Videos.

The DRX-S77U also did fairly well in our CD read tests. While its access times were a little higher than I would have liked, the drive read both data and audio CD's at speeds as high as 25x. Writing CD's wasn't a problem for the DRX-S77U either. The drive turned in some respectable writing times and the writing quality was quite good. With all of these things considered, the Sony DRX-S77U gets a solid 8 out of 10 for its performance.


After having the DRX-S77U in the 'Labs for a few weeks, I'm left with mixed feelings. While Sony has delivered a compact and lightweight DVD writer with good looks, impressive specs and a number of useful features, the drive's power requirements limit where it can be used.

For a portable drive, the DRX-S77U performed relatively well when writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media, taking a little more than 12 minutes to burn an entire 4.7GB DVD. It also turned in some respectable times when writing to other types of media. However, the writing quality could have been better with some DVD+R DL discs.  When it came to reading DVD's, the DRX-S77U was able to read single layer DVD-ROM's and most recordable media at 8x but slowed to only 4x when reading DVD-Videos.

Reading CD's wasn't a problem for the DRX-S77U either. While its seek times were a little higher than I would have liked, the drive read pressed and recordable CD media at speeds as high as 25x. This level of performance carried over to our DAE tests, where the drive ripped audio CD's at 25x. As a writer, the DRX-S77U performed as expected. The drive was relatively quick when writing to CD-R and CD-RW media and its writing quality was quite good.

Sony's new portable DVD writer also has its share of features. To prevent buffer underruns, the DRX-S77U has a 2048KB buffer that is backed up by some sort of buffer underrun technology. The drive also offers a good number of writing and rewriting speeds to choose from and supports bitsetting for DVD+R DL discs. As I mentioned earlier, the biggest issue I had with the DRX-S77U was that it could not be powered off a computer's USB bus. Sony claims that the AC adapter is better at providing stable power. However, I'd rather have the option of using one or the other, instead of being limited to locations where a power outlet is available.

The Sony DRX-S77U is available now and can be purchased from Amazon or the retailers listed on Pricegrabber for less than $70.

Sony DRX-S77U
8x USB 2.0 DVD±RW/RAM
Features:
Installation:
Performance:
7
9
8
Overall: 8

Highs:

  • Writes to DVD±R media at 8x
  • Writes to DVD+RW media at 8x
  • Writes to DVD-RW media at 6x
  • Writes to DVD±R DL media at 6x
  • Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 8x
  • Reads DVD±R, DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media at 8x
  • Reads and writes to DVD-RAM media at 5x
  • Features 24x CD-R and CD-RW writing speeds
  • Good selection of writing and rewriting speeds
  • Includes buffer underrun prevention technology
  • Good DVD±R and CD-R writing quality
  • Compact and lightweight design
  • Supports bitsetting for DVD+R DL media
  • Includes software from Nero

Lows:

  • Not USB powered
  • Questionable writing quality with some DVD+R DL media
  • Reads DVD-Videos at only 4x
  • Cannot set the book type of DVD+R or DVD+RW media
  • Overburns to only 92:57